Joe Rogan calls RFK Jr the only candidate ‘that makes sense to me’

Podcast host calls independent candidate for president a ‘legitimate guy’ but says he is not offering endorsement

Robert F Kennedy Jr’s independent presidential campaign may be seeing poll numbers fall and funds dwindle, amid bizarre tales about brain worms and pranks with dead bears and accusations of dangerous conspiracy mongering, but he has nonetheless secured a sought-after supporter: Joe Rogan.

The popular podcaster appeared to offer his endorsement on Thursday, saying Kennedy was “the only one that makes sense to me”.

Continue reading...

Biden, Harris to attend first joint event since he quit campaign race – as it happened

This blog now closed. You can find the latest US politics coverage here.

Ahead of her and Tim Walz’s campaign in Arizona later today, Kamala Harris wrote on X:

“We are running a campaign on behalf of all Americans.

It is great to be in Arizona with governor Tim Walz.”

Continue reading...

Polls show Kamala Harris building lead over Trump in 2024 election

Democratic party’s presumptive nominee 2.1 points over Trump in FiveThirtyEight’s national average

Kamala Harris continues to gain strength in the US presidential election, as polls nationally and in battleground states show her building leads or catching Donald Trump.

On Friday morning, FiveThirtyEight, a leading polling analysis site, puts Harris, the Democratic party’s presumptive nominee for president, up by 2.1 points over her Republican rival in its national average.

Continue reading...

Harris and Trump agree to televised debate | First Thing

ABC confirms US presidential candidates will face off for the first time on 10 September. Plus: the return of panda diplomacy

Good morning.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will face off for the first time on 10 September in a highly anticipated televised debate on ABC, the network confirmed Thursday, as Harris continues to gain momentum, leaving the Trump campaign scrambling.

What did Trump say at the press conference? Trump attacked Harris and falsely claimed that no one was killed in the 6 January attack on the US Capitol. He grew heated over comparing crowd sizes, and claimed he wanted to do three debates. Earlier, Trump had suggested he would back out of the 10 September debate that had previously been set with Joe Biden before Biden stepped down from his re-election campaign.

What do the polls say? While Biden had been trailing Trump in key swing states, Harris has made gains, particularly after announcing the Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate. An Ipsos poll published on Thursday found Harris ahead of Trump by 42% to 37%, compared to a 22-23 July Reuters/Ipsos survey, which showed her up 37% to 34% over Trump.

How has the Trump campaign been reacting to the rise of Harris? Concerns have created fractures inside Trumpworld, with some Maga allies criticizing Trump’s political advisers who are working to paint Harris as more progressive than she is and launch “Willie Horton” attacks from the old Republican playbook that suggest she is directly responsible for crimes some migrants committed.

How many people have died from Tropical Storm Debby? At least seven people have died from the storm, which made first landfall early Monday on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Debby made a second landfall in South Carolina early on Thursday, and more flooding is expected in North and South Carolina before the storm clears those states.

Continue reading...

Trump campaign struggles to lay a glove on surging Harris

Concerns have caused fractures to appear inside Trumpworld, with some Maga allies criticizing advisers

Donald Trump’s campaign recognizes that it could lose in November if the election is decided on “vibes” and “energy”, according to people close to the former president, as Kamala Harris continues to ride waves of momentum with her newly announced running mate Tim Walz.

The concern has also started to open fractures inside Trumpworld, with some Maga allies criticizing Trump’s political advisers for running a campaign that may be too structurally deficient to stand up a ground game in swing states.

Continue reading...

Harris continues battleground campaign blitz after Trump’s rambling press conference – live

Harris campaigns with Walz in Detroit; ABC News confirms Trump and Harris will debate on 10 September

In a new tweet on Thursday ahead of her address with workers from the United Auto Workers union in Detroit, Michigan Kamala Harris wrote:

“This campaign is not just about us versus Donald Trump. Our campaign is about fighting for the future.”

Continue reading...

Pelosi has ‘never been that impressed’ with Biden’s political operation

Former House speaker on how she concluded the president couldn’t beat Trump and should step aside

Nancy Pelosi has “never been that impressed” with Joe Biden’s “political operation”, the former US House speaker said, discussing a judgment that helped her conclude the president could not beat Donald Trump and should step aside.

“They won the White House [in 2020]. Bravo. But my concern was: this ain’t happening, and we have to make a decision for [Biden’s withdrawal] to happen,” Pelosi told the New Yorker, in an interview published on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Uncommitted voters respond to Harris-Walz ticket with hope and reservations

Harris expresses openness to discussing Israel-Gaza stance with movement leaders, who are torn over Walz as VP pick

Leaders of the “uncommitted” campaign spoke with Kamala Harris and her newly announced running mate, the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, before a rally in Detroit on Wednesday to discuss their calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo on Israel.

Harris “shared her sympathies and expressed an openness to a meeting with the Uncommitted leaders to discuss an arms embargo”, the organization said in a statement.

Continue reading...

‘We’re not going back’: thousands rally for Harris and Walz in Wisconsin and Michigan

Detroit rally draws 15,000 people and high energy despite Gaza protesters and medical incidents from summer heat

Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, continued their swing-state tour with rallies in rural Wisconsin and Detroit, Michigan, on Wednesday, that the campaign said brought out more than 10,000 people each.

The rallies, which followed a raucous event in Philadelphia, served as an opportunity for Harris to continue to introduce Walz, a formerly low-profile midwest governor, to Democrats in the critical swing state.

Continue reading...

JD Vance attacks Tim Walz’s military record as election race heats up

Vance, who served as a correspondent in the marines, accused Walz of ‘stolen valor garbage’

JD Vance went on the offensive on Wednesday, attacking the military record of Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential pick.

Speaking in Michigan, Donald Trump’s Republican running mate said: “You know what really bothers me about Tim Walz? When the United States Marine Corps … asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it. I did what they asked me to do and I did it honorably, and I’m very proud of that service.

Continue reading...

Biden ‘not confident at all’ in peaceful transfer of power if Trump loses race

President says in CBS News clip that Trump ‘means what he says’ about ‘a bloodbath for the country’ if he loses election

Joe Biden has said he is not confident there will be a peaceful transfer of power after the November presidential election.

“If Trump wins, no, I’m not confident at all. I mean, if Trump loses, I’m not confident at all,” the president said in an interview with CBS News that is due to air in full this Sunday.

Reuters contributed reporting

Continue reading...

Trump claims – without evidence – to have saved Walz from protesters in 2020

Trump tells Fox News that he announced Walz was a ‘good person’ to dissuade protesters from surrounding his house

Donald Trump claimed to have saved Kamala Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, from rightwing protesters in 2020 during unrest in Minnesota after the police murder of George Floyd, a statement that appears to contradict Walz’s own descriptions of calls between the two politicians.

Speaking to Fox News on Wednesday, Trump said, without offering evidence or specific dates or times, that he publicly announced Walz was “a good person” in order to dissuade protesters from surrounding Walz’s house.

Continue reading...

Peggy Flanagan in line to be first US female Indigenous governor if Harris and Walz win

Walz can continue serving as Minnesota’s governor until the election, but if he and Harris are successful, Flanagan will take over

Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, could become the first US female Indigenous governor if Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential pick, Tim Walz, resigns from office. Walz can continue serving as the state’s governor until the November election, but if he and Harris are successful, Flanagan will take over his gubernatorial duties.

In fact, a series of firsts would be triggered should the Harris-Walz ticket win: Harris would become the nation’s first woman, first Black woman and first person of Indian descent to ascend to the country’s top office. Flanagan, already the highest-ranking Native woman in a state-level executive office, would become Minnesota’s first female governor and the first Indigenous woman to serve as governor of a US state. And Minnesota’s senate president, Bobby Joe Champion, would become Minnesota’s first Black lieutenant governor.

Continue reading...

Dar Leaf, Michigan’s ‘constitutional sheriff’, wins re-election by landslide

Pro-militia and election denying Republican will continue 20-year run as sheriff in Barry county

Dar Leaf, the prominent election-denying sheriff of Barry county, Michigan, and leader in the rightwing “constitutional sheriffs” movement, will win his Republican primary by a wide margin, according to unofficial vote totals.

No Democrats filed to run, so Leaf is likely to continue serving as sheriff.

Continue reading...

The coach v the couch: key takeaways from the first Harris-Walz rally

Harris praises Walz’s time as a football coach as her VP pick says he’ll debate JD Vance ‘if he’s willing to get off the couch’

Kamala Harris introduced her running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, to supporters at a packed, energetic rally at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The event, which kicks off a week-long tour through the most politically competitive US states, marks a new chapter for the Harris campaign after securing enough delegates to be the Democratic nominee.

Continue reading...

Kamala Harris introduces running mate Tim Walz at raucous Philadelphia rally

Democratic nominee calls Walz ‘the kind of vice-president America deserves’ as pair vow to take fight to Donald Trump

Kamala Harris introduced her running mate Tim Walz as “the kind of vice-president America deserves” at a raucous rally in Philadelphia that showcased Democratic unity and enthusiasm for the party’s presidential ticket ahead of the November election.

Casting their campaign as a “fight for the future”, Harris and Walz were repeatedly interrupted by applause and cheering as they addressed thousands of battleground-state voters wearing bracelets that twinkled red, white and blue at Temple University’s Liacouras Center – a crowd Harris’s team said was its largest to date.

Continue reading...

Tim Walz thanks Kamala Harris for ‘honor of a lifetime’ as she praises running mate for ‘fighting for middle-class families’ – live

Democrats welcome choice of Minnesota governor to be Harris’s running mate in race against Donald Trump and JD Vance

As we await Kamala Harris’s running mate announcement, Americans in some states are heading to the polls today.

Voters in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington state will cast ballots in their congressional primaries today. Results in Michigan will be especially scrutinized, as the battleground state will play a key role in the presidential election.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) pumped more than $8.5m into the race in Missouri’s first congressional district in support of Bush’s rival, St Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell, through its campaign funding arm, the United Democracy Project (UDP). …

The UDP accounts for more than half of all the money spent on the race outside of the campaigns themselves. Much of it comes from billionaires who fund hardline pro-Israel causes and Republicans in other races, including some who have given to Donald Trump’s campaign.

With the support of 99% of all participating delegates in the virtual roll call, Vice-President Harris has historic momentum at her back as we embark on the final steps in officially certifying her as our Party’s nominee.

We thank the thousands of delegates from all across the country who took seriously their responsibility throughout this process to make their voices – and the voices of their communities – heard.

Continue reading...

Polls show Kamala Harris moving ahead of Donald Trump in 2024 US election

Recent national head-to-head polls favor Harris, but polls battleground states present a more mixed picture

As Kamala Harris named Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, as her running mate, recent polls showed the vice-president moving ahead of Donald Trump in the race for the White House.

Among recent national head-to-head polls, SurveyUSA put Harris up three points ahead of Trump, 48%-45%; Morning Consult put her up four points, 48%-44%; YouGov and CBS News made it a one-point Harris lead, 50%-49%; and University of Massachusetts Amherst put Harris up three, 46%-43%.

Continue reading...

Kamala Harris names Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, as running mate

Under Walz’s leadership, Minnesota has seen progressive legislative wins, and his simple retort that Republicans are ‘weird’ went viral

Kamala Harris, the de facto Democratic nominee for US president, has named Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, as her running mate ahead of the November election.

The decision ends intense speculation over which candidate Harris would pick to go up against Donald Trump, the Republican nominee and former president, and his choice for vice-president, the Ohio senator JD Vance.

Continue reading...

Influencer gives Trump a Tesla, a Rolex … and a campaign finance violation?

Video game streamer Adin Ross’s gifts worth tens of thousands may fall foul of fundraising law

After Donald Trump sat down for an interview with a social media influencer whose past guests have included an accused rapist and an avowed white supremacist, the host gave the former president a Tesla Cybertruck as well as a Rolex watch in what could amount to a campaign finance violation.

Trump’s campaign has since said that it will seek guidance from the Federal Election Commission on how to handle the gifts. The internet celebrity who hosted Trump, Adin Ross, has not publicly commented on the gifts in relation to campaign finance laws, which limit individuals’ contributions to political candidates they support to $3,300 – far below the value of the truck and watch.

Continue reading...